Category × County
35 Best Beaches In Norfolk
Thirty-five is a big figure for one county and the one most likely to mislead. A named beach on this coast is often an access point rather than a separate destination, and Waxham Beach, Horsey Beach and Winterton on Sea Beach put you onto the same long run of sand from different lanes. The real question is not which beach but which sort. There is the wide, walk-for-an-hour kind at Brancaster Beach and Wells Next The Sea Beach, and the village access kind at Walcott Beach and Bacton Beach, where the sand and the village behind it are the whole of it.
Top beaches in Norfolk
Showing 1–12 of 35
BeachesWaxham Beach
BeachesWinterton on Sea Beach
BeachesGorleston Beach
BeachesBrancaster Beach
BeachesEast Runton Beach
BeachesWalcott Beach
BeachesWells Next The Sea Beach
BeachesOverstrand Beach
BeachesBacton Beach
BeachesHorsey Beach
BeachesSea Palling Beach
BeachesOld Hunstanton Beach
Read thirty-five as thirty-five ways onto a coast rather than thirty-five days out. Choose the stretch first and the entry second, based on how far you are willing to carry a windbreak and a bag of sandwiches. One of the thirty-five is flagged indoor, which is plainly a slip in our data rather than a covered beach. Wind matters more than rain along here, and there is very little shelter at any of them, so pack for it.
Beaches in Norfolk: FAQs
Which of these suits a toddler?
The village entries, generally, because the walk from the car to the sand is short and a toddler's patience is spent before you arrive otherwise. Walcott Beach and Bacton Beach are that pattern. What no directory entry can tell you, ours included, is where the water is safe or supervised on a given day, and along a coast with this much sand that changes constantly. Read the beach's own information and the signs when you get there.
Does a grey day ruin it?
Far less than a family from inland expects, and the regulars will say the same. A wide beach under flat light is still a beach: buckets, digging, a kite, somewhere to run. What kills the day is wind with rain in it, and most of this list offers nothing to shelter behind. Bring more layers than seems reasonable, keep the trip brief instead of stretching it out, and hold a dry indoor option in reserve for the moment the first child gives up.
How do we narrow thirty-five down?
Start by deciding whether you want the north-facing stretch or the east-facing one, since they behave differently in wind and that is what will actually shape the day. Then pick by effort: the big open beaches reward a family who will walk, and the village ones suit a family who will not. Ratings barely separate the top entries, so treating them as a ranking will not help you choose. Geography will.
Our nine-year-old is bored of sand. Then what?
Wells Next The Sea Beach is the sort of entry that comes with a working town attached, which gives an older child somewhere to be when the digging stops. On the emptier stretches the answer is to bring the interest with you: a bodyboard, a football, a proper walk with a destination at the end of it. A big empty beach is wonderful for a nine-year-old with a plan and a long hour for one without.